A while ago you may have seen us write about how UK university Roehampton was offering eSports scholarships to potential new students. Well, Roehampton reached out to TechNuovo to let us know that their first eSports scholar is graduating from a law degree at the top of her class.
The student is question is called Julia Cwierz, and she is set to graduate tomorrow from the University of Roehampton with a first class degree in Law, and is even being recognised as the top performing graduate on her course. Cwierz, who is currently 21, will be going on to study at LLM Legal Practice in September in preparation of becoming a solicitor.
Her game of choice? League of Legends, where she plays as a jungler dictating team strategy and assisting using specialised talents. She’s currently achieved a Diamond rank, putting her in the top 1.5% of players in the West Europe region.
Julia became the team captain for Roehampton University’s official League of Legends team and went on to compete in the National University eSports League twice. This led to her being awarded the scholarship, which is the first of its kind in the UK. Other feats include the Oxford University Press Law Prize, and an appearance at the very first VidCon in London where she was part of an industry panel discussing the profitability of eSports.
Julia said: “I am excited for the next stage of my studies after an amazing experience at the University of Roehampton.
Competing in eSports whilst studying an intensive course like law was challenging due to the additional extracurricular activities I have engaged in such as volunteering and professional experience, but I wouldn’t have changed anything.
“Looking ahead, I am primarily focusing on my legal career but by no means am I ruling out the eSports path.
After finishing my LPC I will most likely have at least a year off, due to the training contracts starting dates, when I would like to get more engaged in eSports.
“Something I feel strongly about is female representation in eSports. Currently there are no women in the top
League of Legends eSports teams even though 45% of people who play games are women. I am currently involved in an initiative in the works to create an all-female team and I’m excited to see where that leads.”
I don’t know about you, but I think if my university offered me a scholarship to play games, I know I wouldn’t be getting any studying done. So hats off to you Julia, that’s an amazing achievement!